Spatial and temporal succession of bacterial communities in three artificial fishponds

Abstract

Fishponds are artificial yet dynamic environments. Microbes play a vital role in the conversion and metabolism of organic matter in aquaculture environments such as fishponds. Changes in bacterial community composition in three fishponds over a 5-month period were investigated by sequencing the 16S rRNA gene through Illumina Miseq. A total of 2,195,879 sequences and 9,975 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were obtained. Further analysis showed that the dominant phyla in three ponds were similar, including Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes. A comprehensive analysis of the diversity, redundancy analysis (RDA) and partial redundancy analysis (pRDA) showed a spatial-temporal structural pattern in the bacterial communities. The bacterial community composition in the three fishponds was shaped more by spatial variation than by temporal variation. The effect of pond isolation was emphasized by the significant differences observed in the three fishponds. However, the temporal succession of bacterial communities in each pond exhibited a similar trend. Correlation analysis and RDA also indicated that temporal variation was significantly associated with TOC, TN and NO2−. This study would improve our understanding of the assembly mechanisms of a microbial structure in artificial pond ecosystems, and provide useful information for fishpond management.